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The RespectAbility Report is a nonpartisan political commentary on U.S. elections with a focus on disability issues. The RespectAbility Report is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates.

Chief political writers for The RespectAbility Report include Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, former political and training director for Campaigns & Elections magazine and regular columnist for The Daily Record, and Lauren Appelbaum, former political researcher for NBC News.

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C. RODNEY JAMES

Your email posts turn up on my computer every so often and I have read them with interest. I would like to know more about your organization and its mission. Is it limited to political commentary on disability issues or do you get beyond that? As a writer who sometimes comments on disability issues I am currently at work on a project to engineer a better UE prosthetic wrist unit. I have been a bilateral hand amputee for many years and served on the President’s Committee on Employment of people with Disabilities for 15 years. You can find my biography on my author page on Amazon Books.

Hi, just viewed your C-Span 2 programming today and I am impressed with your mission for RespectAbility. I am a lifelong Disability Rights Advocate and I am also deaf but can communicate very well in both verbally and lip reading. I wish I was able to join your forum in DC for the Campaign 2016 and Voters with Disabilities-if I knew it sooner than a short notice I received this morning.

I am very proactive in many great causes. I would like to make a suggestion on your program this morning where I found it to be offset by one of your camera crew members. There was a moment when your program caught off-guard during the speech (from the CEO/President of RespectAbility, Jennifer M.) on podium with the sign language interpreter to her right. Did you noticed that frame shot was cut in half of that female interpreter’s face? It was disturbing and offensive to me as a deaf person and behalf of our deaf communities. My suggestion for you is to ensure all your programming will be equally accessible and it should have frame in front and center with a common sense. From what I saw was Jennifer stood on stage and there was more than enough room to move the camera over to the interpreter instead leaving the left side of Jennifer’s shoulder wide in the open and caught only half of that interpreter’s face. For that, it was disrespectful and that was just a momentarily ago when you had a discussion about how to dealt with the media broadcasting and get involved in the public eye. This wasn’t the first time that your camera crew mocked the images while filming onLive programming on C-Span2.

The second suggestion, is to keep that view front and center without dismiss of that interpretertorted or distracted the translator’s image. I think it’s so imponrtto include the full view of that interpreter

As I mentioned it is so important to include a full view of that interpreter during programming and see them more accessible for most deaf viewers who cannot understand captions due to literacy barrier. So, I therefore believe you should instruct the camera crew members to focus the priority by respecting the translators without provoke or mock their image in half. It was disgraced and I was disappointed about their poor judgement and not make it fully accessible for a personerson like myself and other hearing disabilities.

I hope you check into it and correct the situation not to neglect that sign language interpreters in the near future event programming. It should be equally treatment for everyone.